F2 on 10m?

Even with my tiny loop indoors, I am spotting plenty of stations in Eastern Europe and the Canaries on 10m FT8. This looks like F2 propagation. In the last few days there has been propagation to the southern USA as well on 10m.

If things continue like this, 10m could again be a really good DX band certainly by next autumn.

Online Foundation licence training

If you want to get into this hobby, you may be interested in this online training course.

See https://www.essexham.co.uk/train/foundation-online/

10m FT8 QRP (Saturday)

At the moment, I am on 10m FT8 with 2.5W and the tiny indoor loop on the shack windowsill indoors. So far (1040z) no-one has spotted me on TX, but I have spotted 3 stations already on 10m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1135z:  So far today, 15 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1246z: 16 stations spotted on RX with the furthermost being UA4NF (3257km)  and 2 stations in the Canaries have spotted my QRP on TX.

UPDATE 1445z:  17 stations spotted today on 10m FT8 RX and still just the 2 spots of me on TX.

Sunspots - Saturday November 28th 2020

Solar flux is 106 and the SSN an amazing 60. A=8 and K=3. For this part of the solar cycle, these are incredible numbers. 

Another Zoom talk

The Cambridge club (CDARC) held another Zoom talk this evening. This was on LTSpice that is available as a free download. Yet again attendance was good. I like these! 

Oscar 100 activity

Maybe it is the time of day (Friday evening in Europe), but this evening there was more SSB activity than I have ever seen. I think there were 13 stations on the screen in the narrow-band transponder. As usual, I check the web SDR at Goonhilly in Cornwall.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

2m FT8 QRP (Friday)

As 10m FT8 was quiet late afternoon, I have QSYed to 2m with my 2.5W and big-wheel omni antenna. Already spotted by G7RAU (461km) in Cornwall with 6 stations spotting me so far. Nothing yet seen on RX and no QSOs. It is now 1649z.

UPDATE 1706z: 4 stations in 2 countries spotted on RX and 9 stations in 3 countries have spotted me on TX.  No QSOs.  Monitoring my signal on G0LRD's grabber (http://82.71.9.63:8080/cap/) at 26km, I may be seeing some QSB.

UPDATE 1843z:  11 stations have spotted me on TX and I have spotted 11 stations on RX.

UPDATE 1946z:  13 stations have spotted me on TX and I have spotted 16 stations on RX.

UPDATE 2230z:   QRT.

Black Friday "deals" - NOT amateur radio

Today, I read that some very big UK retailers have decided not to offer Black Friday deals. I cannot say I blame them. 

As I have mentioned before, some may really be bargains, whereas others are not. It is basically about commercialism and extending Christmas sales. To me, it sucks.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55093002

English placenames beginning with "J" - NOT amateur radio

Whilst trying to get to sleep earlier in the week I tried to think of placenames starting with "A", then "B" etc. It was interesting how hard "J" was. I guess this is because some names are very old and pre-date "J" being in the alphabet. In old Latin both J and W were missing.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_alphabet#Old_Latin_alphabet

Church (in distance) over ploughed field - NOT amateur radio

This photo was taken yesterday on our walk. It shows Burwell church in the distance over a ploughed field.  It was muddy!